I build robots that work with people, not just around them. My research covers the design, control, and real-world deployment of robots that physically interact with people and their surroundings, from soft, growing vine robots that reach places no person can to wearable devices that help restore movement and sensation. Across all of it, my goal is the same: robots that people trust, and that expand what they can do.

Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Robust And Adaptive Design (RAAD) Lab Lab in Purdue University’s School of Mechanical Engineering, working with Dr. Laura Blumenschein. I lead motion planning and control for growing vine robots used in non-destructive inspection, and I mentor graduate students in the lab.

I earned my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Auburn University under Dr. Chad Rose in the Wearable and Bio-Robotics (WeBR) Lab. My dissertation, Evaluating Active Assessment and Learning Control for Robotic Rehabilitation, developed adaptive neural-network controllers with formal stability guarantees for the 14-DoF Harmony upper-limb exoskeleton and for hybrid FES/motor rehabilitation, and tested them in human-subject studies. My work in rehabilitation robotics has appeared in ASME Letters in Dynamic Systems and Control and at IEEE ICORR and BioRob, and I am a co-inventor on a patented system for treating peripheral neuropathy.